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iddyiddybangbang2022-09-12 08:31 pm
apachefirecat) wrote in iddyiddybangbang2022-09-12 08:31 pm
Entry tags:
Lights For The Children - Multi-Fandom Crossover Including Real!Disney, Holidays, Dracula, More
Title: Lights For The Children
Author: Apache Firecat
Fandoms: Disney, Holidays, Dracula, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sherlock Holmes
Wordcount: 8,641
Rating: Strong PG-13/T - to a Light M/R
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Real!Disney, Real World Events, Hunting shown in a Bad Light, Mentions of Child Abuse and Pediophilia
Relationships: Charming/Cinderella, Beast/Belle, Aladdin/Jasmine, Harvey/Sabrina
Summary: A legendary Council discusses startling events escalating around the world.
My Friends,
I am haunted by everything that is happening in our kingdom currently. Not all of our visitors are very nice people as of late, to the point that my husband and some of the other Princes have began to take it upon themselves to discipline those who should not be walking freely within our gates, or anywhere for that matter. There are people beyond the Pirates giving children liquor, and worse, much worse.
Children are willingly following and even joining the very worst of the villains while scores of other children are being not only harm by those children and others but again, much worse, things about which I can not bear to think, let alone write especially as there is such power in words as we all know. We truly did once pride ourselves on being the Happiest Place on Earth, but how can we remain happy when our children are under constant threat? How can we provide joy when we cannot provide safety?
Things have been escalating quickly, and I hear that ours is far from the only kingdom being affected. Still I was ill prepared for today. We all were. Someone brought a gun into our magical place, a live gun that fired live bullets, and they attacked the very children to whom we have all dedicated our lives to making happy and teaching the better things of life. How can we expect them to hold to their morals growing up, when they cannot even be happy here, when they cannot be safe here or anywhere, including their own homes?
Safety and joy must go hand in hand, but even that dreadful, giant Mouse wanted to just cover everything up. I know we're supposed to view that Mouse as our savior, and I know he and Walt did make certain, great sacrifices to bring us all into this world, sacrifices that they have somehow set up and are still occurring to this day to bring more of our people over, but if things like this continue to happen, if the children who are brought into our land to be made happy cannot be kept safe, I am going to have to say something. They may well behead me or view me as they do poor Maleficent, but I know not how much longer I can keep my tongue.
Honestly, I shouldn't be keeping it still today. There were children today. Blood ran in our pretty streets. Children who were brought here to safety and happiness were led into a bloodbath. If the Fairies had not been so quick to activate, I fear what more may have happened, and what more may still happen. There were only a few lives lost today, but every life, especially that of a child's, is precious. When will this stop?
I hear tales from beyond the gates that things in the rest of the world are even more horrible, but they make certain I cannot attain these articles. I know the things they flash on these television sets are lies. Our own tales dominate them, but all of that happened in the past. We need to know what is coming. Even the villains seem to be afraid after today. Lady Tremaine actually rang me up today and, for once, did not speak a single cruel word. When such as they even tremble with anxiety as what may yet come, are we not living in far more dangerous times than ever before?
How do things fair in your corners of the world, my friends? Are we fighting a losing battle? Are our children opened to danger? Is there anything, truly, we can do to stop another bloodbath from happening, even in this magical place? Your honest thoughts during this time are not only requested; they are desperately sought. Please enlighten me to what is really happening beyond the palace. Please tell me we do have a reason to keep the faith, a reason to still believe. Please assure me that all is not lost.
Cordially Yours,
Queen C
Orlando, FL
My dearest Cinderella, and to Whomever Else By Whom This Correspondence May Find Its Way,
I sincerely wish I had good news, but I can stand a falsehood no more than you. It is getting increasingly more difficult to attain the true news here, as well. They clearly are hiding something from us, something they do not wish us to know. I fear that the events unfolding now may lead to a massacre even worse than that which our own people suffered, and I do not know how to stop it. I fear for my husband's safety every time he ventures beyond our castle, and no longer because he is covered in fur and so quick to wrath.
There have always been the hunters who murder poor animals in the name of "sport", those who want to add his head to their walls in decoration, but hunting is no longer stopping at our furry friends and lovers. You are most certainly, sorrowfully correct: Our children, our world, new as it is to us still, is under a vicious attack. We have not yet had a bloodbath within our sanctified walls, but neither I or Mrs. Potts are complacent with any one venturing out when such is not necessary.
Someone mistook my poor father just the other day for one of their people. Had it not been for Aladdin, he would have lost what little valuables he does have. (As you no doubt may recall, he still refuses to accept any gifts from my husband, myself, or any of our people, stubbornly viewing it as charity.) Jasmine is with child now, and she confesses to me daily that she fears for her children. She suspects things may have even been easier in the world from whence we have come, but of course, as we know, she and Aladdin are considerably younger than we. They do not recall all the horrors which we endured before coming to this new land.
I would not wish such travesties on anyone, but even I can understand why she is plagued by such thoughts. I always thought that the news Doc gave me on the evening when he advised that Adam and I will never be able to have children of our own would be the most horrendous news I would ever receive, but such is no longer the case. As you also know, the birds who can not speak our tongues are free to travel in and out of the parks, so I have instructed several to bring me newspapers. They do, from all across the world. I receive about fifty newspapers before the sun rises each day, and I am saddened to have to report to you that it is indeed a nightmare out there for our children and for anyone else's. Why, just today, I read of over a hundred kidnappings and so many molestations and murders that it would truly sicken you and anyone else with a heart!
Perhaps Jasmine is right, and this is not a world in which we would want to raise our children, but then what? Can we be expected to turn a blind eye to the children who are already here? Even Captain Hook has taken a hand -- or, rather, a hook -- in helping keep safe the children who do come into our kingdom, but we cannot keep them here forever. Now I know what you are going to say. You think he's only out to expand his own, little gang of ruffians, but let me be the first to tell you that the Lost Boys have nothing on some of the children who are venturing into our kingdom!
Yes, you read that right: the children! The adults are not the only ones who are acting monstrously! Why, it was only yesterday that the Captain snagged a boy and was about to hand him over to Stromboli for the brags he'd heard the child telling! Aladdin only barely stopped him, and when he heard the same tales from the boy's mouth, he nearly regretted it! That child, of only ten years of age, has killed his parents and was gloating in our kingdom that he had escaped doing that awful deed!
Such could never have been imagined in our worlds! Yes, the evil step mothers, hunters, Dark Fairies, and many others were horrible with whom to contend (not to mention the curses), but you never heard of a child killing someone! Yet some of these children are! And they think it is something over which to brag!
I fear I must close this letter now for I can barely see to finish penning. My stomach is roiling with sickness at the memories, and I can not seem to stop crying! This is not the world we came seeking, and Jasmine is right: With children now killing, it is certainly not a place anyone should want to, or have to, raise their children!
I, too, fear what is to come, but we must be brave. This is our world now, whether we choose to accept it or not. We have no further choice. And besides, what good could possibly come from returning to our own world? As scary as this vast world is, we must not forget what we have escaped, and to whence we would return if we did! They still seek to put my husband and my most cherished friends to death, and whereas your husband's head may never touch a trophy wall, you know they would not hesitate to put your friends to death! Do not forget, my friend, that a good many of your village did not come through with the move for that very reason!
Our peoples have always feared what they do not understand and sought to put that to death, but here, in this land, it seems that if anyone wants whatever it is you may possess, they are quick to dispatch with you to attain those very things!
Please, all of you, be safe!
With Love,
Belle
Anaheim, California
My Dearest Friends,
You both most certainly are correct in your fears and beliefs that the world around us is quickly twisting for the worst. Even my own stepmother could not have created a land this terrible! The good people are so afraid, and the wicked... Oh, my goodness, are you ever correct in fearing, Belle, that not a one of these ruffians will stop at anything to take what they want!
You all know the tale of how my marriage came to be and why I ripped it asunder, when I discovered the kind of monster my groom was! (No offense, Cinderella. I know our husbands are cousins, but yours could not be more different than that Prince Charming I left in your park the last day I was there!) Still, as horrendous as my Charming was, thinking I would dance for him forever until my feet bled and that the Dwarves were to be nothing but tools to add to his riches, so many of these people are so much more wretched!
They have lain waste to our forest recently, and the Dwarves and I have had to scurry even further underground. We rarely venture out these days, and whenever we must, we always hurry back, and often bring many of our animal brethren with us. Again, Belle, I know all too well what you mean when you describe how barbaric hunters have become. In our world, there were few hunters (beyond your village, my apologies) who would hunt for any reason other than royal orders and to fill bellies, but here killing other creatures -- killing the truly innocent -- has gone beyond not only that but that horrific idea of sport as well! They are now beheading innocent beings and living their entire bodies wherever they may fall! They will take the antlers of some deer, but when slaying others, even does and fawns, they leave everything behind! Worse still, we are discovering slain bodies of their own kind when we venture into parts of the woods where we do not normally journey.
We have found it necessary to keep to our own lest something far worse occur. Even when we do venture into the forest, or beyond, we try not to speak to anyone. We aim to refrain from even looking at any of their people, and still my friends, neither animals nor Dwarves, are left alone. The other day, we actually had someone follow us! I have not had that experience since I lived in your kingdoms, but it happened. They followed behind us and then tried to seal the mines with us trapped inside, thinking -- and I know this because they had the boldness to actually sing about it! -- they would take all the silver and gold when we were dead within! Luckily, they had not counted on little Dopey being so small. He escaped, then freed the rest of us, and my little men left me here quite determinedly while they dealt with the would-be thief.
I am no longer allowed to venture outdoors. I have not felt this frightened since the days in whence I hid from my stepmother, but you are right about the children, too. We had a child try to pick Grumpy's pocket that same day that we last ventured out. I would say the poor thing was hungry, but he was fat and round and even spoke with such language that he almost made Grumpy blush! Grumpy denies it of course, but I witnessed his face flaring red! Perhaps it was only due to my presence, but still, what are children doing speaking so crudely?
That boy was one of a group, and we saw the ones to whom he ran. They were putting some kind of white, floury substance up their noses, and that was exactly the moment the Dwarves all decided it was time for us to leave. Something different has befallen Dopey with those experiences. Even Happy does not seem the same. I am watching this as I pen this missive by candlelight, and only Grumpy sleeps fastly, a dagger nearly as large as he is clutched tightly in his little hands!
Oh, what are we to do?! Is it this way everywhere now? Please tell me it is not!
Frightened,
SW
Enchanted Forest
P.S.: I'll start sending some birds your way, Cindy!
To All My Fellow Council Members,
Oh, my friends, I do wish I could say that I am as startled as you all seem to be by these changes, but I might remind you rather that I was against the move from the start. Pooh Bear and the others would not listen, and I simply had to come along to protect them. It's what Christopher Robin would want after all, and what my great lineage of owls before me would expect as well. But I was against the move! I told you. I warned you all: The grass may seem greener in another pasture, but it rarely ever is!
And now look at us! This is a fine mess into which we have all landed! Yes, even far out here in our hundred acres, even we are feeling the sting of how ugly and barbaric this so-called civilization of ruffians has become! I have warned Pooh as I have warned you all not to go around these people, that they are far from being like our beloved Christopher Robin, but he refuses to listen to me when it comes to those accursed honey pots. It also seems that the very bees have been under attack by these people, and so we have found ourselves with what he feels to be a very serious plight - a distinct lack of honey with which to fill said honey pots.
Against my better advice, he gathered a group the other day and ventured into town to try to attain more honey and to determine what had happened to the bees. The bees are dying, my friends, and they are far from being the only species these people have made extinct -- that is to say, that they are far from the only species whose every single member has been wiped out by these people! Perhaps not every member. Perhaps that it is a little to the extreme, but not by much, I warn you! Furthermore, if they have their way, if someone does not stop them, they will be made extinct! They are destroying their own world and, along with it, all the creatures who call it home.
Which, sorrowfully, includes us! As I said, I warned you! An old bird can only do so much! Yet here we are again -- in yet another world that is slated to death!
And lest you think I jest, hunters actually came to our beloved One Hundred Acre Wood, following Pooh Bear, Piglet, and Tigger when they so foolishly ventured into town over honey, of all things! If it had not been for Rabbit's and my own quick thinking, that lot of beasts would have gone away from our forest with the heads of two of our most beloved, cherished members, but that is not even all! I clearly heard them discussing roasting poor Piglet over a fire and eating him here in the forest before taking Pooh's and Tigger's heads to mount on those accursed walls! They caught Piglet too before we could be rid of the monsters. He has not stopped trembling since, and I truly fear the poor thing will never be right again!
We've made our pot! Now we must lay in it, but I will not watch any more of my friends die without a fight!
Signed,
Owl
My Friends,
I fear I have seen this all before. It is the very thing that caused Salem to mount a rebellion that failed so miserably. I know you are all mostly new to this dimension, having come to our world in the Edwardian Era, but let a Witch with a few centuries beneath her coned hat tell you that this is certainly not the first time hatred, fear, and greed have ruled America. Before America was settled here, this land thrived with Supernatural beings: Witches, Vampires, beasts, Sorcerers, Fairies, and many, many others who had sought refuge here upon the dark-skinned tribes that originally founded this land.
Those very people are still here, or rather, what remains of them, but the Supernatural populations, as you all should know, have been dying for centuries. That is because the humans were so bent on conquest, on taking whatever, or whoever, they wanted for themselves. The humans are the true monsters, but they never looked at themselves in such a light and never will. The dark-skinned tribes that originally settled this land are still known in some areas as the Native Americans, but they have been all but wiped out by the people who came next.
There was a time when we had as many magical beings in our world as you did in yours. There was a time when magic was well known, and the knowledge, although not the art, was well accepted. People did not try to lie and pretend that such did not exist, but when trying their best to wipe us all out was not as effective as they wanted it to be, they began to find other means of destroying our circles. They killed thousands of peasants who were not Witches but simply did not fall in with their ways of thinking -- such as yourself, Belle, so open-minded and open-mouthed about everything that they do that is wrong and upon which they should indeed be called out --, but when confronted with a real Witch such as myself, they more often than not ran.
I would like to say more on this matter, but I know that no letter leaves this house without being witnessed by the Council. As risky as it is for me to say this much (and if I am indeed silenced, you will know when you do not receive word from me again), Salem had a reason to do what he did. Most of the humans ran from us publicly, but the outcry amongst their kind brought a new kind of hunter into our mix. Thousands of our kind were being slaughtered every day for being different. Somebody had to do something. He tried, he went a little power mad, and ultimately, he failed.
I fear any attempt now to quell this growing madness will also likely be met with such a wrath, but I also am getting a bit ahead of myself. Humans have always had the tendency to take whatever they want, by whatever force they deem necessary to attain said items. It is nothing new. Look at the Native Americans whom I already mentioned. Yes, they are still here, but there are so few of them now. Theirs is a distinct example of what human beings do even to their own kind: Forget the bees. They nearly made an entire race of people extinct! They took the kind and noble "savages" as they called them back then and slaughtered them by the hundreds, by the thousands even. They took their land from them, their homes, their food, and they did all this while by being welcomed with kindness in the beginning. They even poisoned them to their deaths with blankets tainted and given to them in the depths of Winter.
They stripped them of everything they owned. They took an entire country from them and sequestered them away onto tiny parcels of land. Many of the few who survived still live feeble existences on these places called reservations. Think of your parks only without the acceptance of the fact that you do not go beyond your parks. Moreover, think of a truly savage people who broke into your homeland and forced you into such small areas, who took the food you offered them when they were starving and made you starve, who slaughtered your children and raped your women...
As I said, humans are the true beasts. Teir selfishness knows no ends, but it is not just all humans. It is nothing as simple as that. No, rather, for lack of better terminology, there is your generic human, and then there are your special humans. Special humans like you, Belle, who can see beyond a beast to the Prince within because you feel no hatred for something or someone simply because he is different, or you, Snow White, with your seven, little men whom you care for as a mother, or even you, Queen Cinderella, with your talking, helping mice. Generic humans take whatever they want heedless of any morals anyone else may have, any morals that actual good humans and other living beings possess, and they use whatever brutish means necessary to attain that which they want.
I'd best stop here for my instincts tell me if I do not, we will be laid siege to this very evening, and with Harvey and Sabrina having a new, bouncing baby, I dare not venture toward such. We must protect our own, after all, above all else, but for those of you like Belle who enjoy reading -- no, all of you should look up and read whatever you can find on the Trail of Tears if you truly wish to understand these monstrous brutes. Hold tight to your loved ones, because this nightmare is just beginning.
Sincerest Regards And Well Wishes To You All,
Doctor Spellman
Westbridge, Massachusetts
My Dear Bi-Pedal Friends,
I am having my human friend translate and write this for me, and yes, it is possible to be friends with these creatures. You yourselves should all know this, what with the way you (rightfully) worry about the human children. However, the way the vast majority of humans act is indeed a plight for great concern and even greater alarm. Zelda is correct: They did indeed almost make one of their own races extinct, but more than that, there was evil even in those she claims to have been so good.
I am not saying, mind you, that they were not good, but what I am saying is that there is good and evil in everything. Humans just seem to have more evil in them than most other species, but perhaps it is not even evil. Perhaps it is carelessness, thoughtlessness, heartlessness, even mere selfishness. Perhaps they are not capable, with their tiny, nut-like minds, of seeing an actual person or animal but only of seeing what they mean to them, rather it is something they do not understand and thereby feel a reason to fear them or it is something they have that they want to have themselves but do not, such as their very skins from which they fashion their clothing choices or their still beating hearts and all the supposed medicines they derive from such organs.
I warn you all as I have tried to warn you from the beginning: Humans are not to be trusted. There are a few who can be, a very precious few like my friend here, but for the vast majority, they absolutely can not be trusted. They are making the bees extinct now. They almost made these Native Americans extinct. But they have laid waste to many, many, many species.
In my time, my kind of animals ruled the world. We were huge. We feared the Tyrannosaurus Rex, of course, and other meat eaters, but when we first began to come across human beings, we thought they were too small to commit any real harm. They were so tiny! I can remember to this day so many of them I encountered who could have been squashed by a single toe of mine. Yet they squashed my people. They squashed my tribe. They squashed even the King of Dinosaurs himself.
There are a few of us left, very well hidden if I do say so myself, but for the most part, they destroyed an entire world, my world. I think it is time I return to hibernation. Just please know that human beings are the greatest threat you have encountered. Please be careful, my friends. I would like to be able to see at least some of you when I wake again.
Farewell,
Nessie
Scotland
My Friends and Fellow Council Members,
I wish I could tell you there was no reason for alarm, but we must not kid ourselves. We have all known this time would come! After all, why else would we have already been penning these letters for centuries? Yes, some of our members are relatively new, but not all, not by any means!
Our oldest members have all been watching these humans for hundreds of years! Nessie and her kind were the first beings in this world, as far as our histories can tell us, but even they were nearly completely extinguished by humans and their greed, and that is indeed to what this all boils down. Humans are the greediest species alive!
Zelda mentioned the Native Americans, but what she did not mention is that part of the hatred and fear that is spreading like wildfire throughout our world right now is caused by a difference in skin color. Yet, back in the time when the Native Americans did hold the country most of you now call home under their domain and control, it was dark-skinned humans who often sold dark-skinned humans. The color of their flesh did not matter nearly as much as their wealth, and many of them made their fortunes off the backs of their very own people! This seems to have been nearly forgotten now as the fairer-skinned ones are being held to blame for the darker-skinned, but make no mistake: There are hundreds of fairer-skinned ones, too, seeking to place blame on the darker-skinned humans for the plight of their nations!
What they all refuse to do is to take into account their own actions and the results from those actions! Until humans can learn this, we can forget, I fear, having any semblance of peace or safety again not only in this land but in any. After all, even those of you who come from other worlds admit that your own worlds were already destroyed by the greed and hate of the humans in those realms. They will not learn from their mistakes, and until they do, yes, we are doomed to repeat histories time and again. We are doomed to our worlds being wiped out time and again!
And yes, this is even affecting the children! There are still many whose souls have not yet been tainted by greed, but they are so afraid! Windows and doors are locked to where I can not even reach the children who believe in me, and there are fewer and fewer of even the youngest who still believe! It's a good thing that disbelief only kills Fairies in Neverland, because otherwise I fear we all, too, would be very extinct!
Allow me to remind you, as well, that teeth tell stories. Every tooth I collect has a story and gives me a little insight to the child from whom it was lost. Now of course, baby teeth are meant to fall out and be replaced by adult molars, and it is also always been a common occurrence for children to lose teeth early, rather it be from accidents or more brutal incidents. However, I must say that those more brutal incidents are increasing more and more with not just each passing year but each passing month. Children are fighting more often, and far too many have become involved in what the humans call gangs. Far too many children also are being mistreated by their own parents: their childhood beliefs ripped away far too soon, being forced to go without food or schooling as their parents indulge their greedy natures, and most horrifically of all, being hurt, and worse, by their own parents. Never have I borne witness to so many thousands of children being abused by the very adults who chose to conceive them!
I want to cry even as I inscribe this letter, but I must away to more teeth while there is yet an opportunity to reach these precious souls. As I close this letter, I am reminded that we have yet to hear from two of your eldest Council members. Please let us give a pause in the flurry of our letters -- I know I am receiving about a hundred letters a day, and I know it's not from the children! -- and give them a chance to speak to us. I can only hope and pray to the Great Star that they have better answers for us, but I fear they do not.
Hopefully,
T. Fairy
Everywhere, although it's looking more and more like that Everywhere may very well turn into Nowhere before too long... What does a Fairy do when she doesn't collect teeth or hang around with Immortal teenagers any way?
Dear Tooth Fairy,
I would say that I believe they grant wishes. At least I know my Fairy Godmother remains my closest friend to this day, and without her, my whole world would have long since fallen into shambles.
Belle, I've been wondering if perhaps we could set up something between my Fairy Godmother and your father? They may be getting on in age, but I would like to see her happy as I am certain you would him.
Also, my sincerest apologies for clogging up everybody's birdhouses with this letter, but I lack a way of contacting our dear Tooth Fairy correctly. Also, despite what I've said in regards to my beloved Fairy Godmother, I do fear we may be too late for wishes at this point...
Concerned,
Queen C.
Orlando, FL
My Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I, too, fear what is building worldwide at this time. I have often seen the States as being a more ruthless and uncivilized nation, but I do fear that we may have gone beyond the point of repair this time as the hatred and fear they are exhibiting so cruelly there is touching everywhere in the world, especially with this latest virus which I hesitate to admit I have learned from Scotland Yard was a weapon unleashed by our very governments. It was originally intended to only affect one nation, but it quickly got out of hand.
I have often doubted the existence of magic, but even if it does exist, as you all claim it does, I fear it can not resolve this issue. This is a matter of greed and jealousy, two things started in the heart, and the affairs of the heart are truly the most mysterious and hardest to control. One should never allow one's heart to rule one's mind, or even one's body; such is always bound to lead to disaster.
It certainly does seem that the entire world is headed, spiraling, towards a great disaster. I have also learned recently that our beloved Queen has fallen into great ailment, and I fear that is the final step on assuring that we will not receive any assistance in resolving this matter in a pleasant fashion from our governments. I may not believe in magic, but I am certainly open to any ideas anyone may have to how the global catastrophe that is so quickly hurtling our way may yet be prevented.
Cordially Yours,
Sherlock Holmes
London, England
All,
I've had little bats arriving all evening, each seeming more tired and winded than the last. I fear I do not have the answers you seek. If I did, I would not have sequestered myself away long ago in the remains of this drafty, old castle. Humans are a wretched lot and are certainly to be feared. I regret to inform you of this, but they truly do seem worse than rats, an impossible feat to defeat them! Where one is drained, three more spring to life with more hatred, more greed, more cruelty!
Zelda, forgive me, my dear, for I know that many of yours was put to death by these wretched creatures, but look at what has become of my clan! I am mocked my millions now when once my rage was legendary throughout the lands! No one dared to laugh at Count Dracula! Yet now, all know my name, and not a single one still fears me! My face, or what they dare to suppose is my face, has been on everything from toys and hard, chocolate cereal to others attempting to wrest my name and succeeding in making their own legends off my fame!
Yet if I venture out, if I reveal myself, I know I will be the last of my clan to die. I will wake one day with a stake in my heart for they do not even possess the courage to give a chap a real fight! They would much rather kill you in your sleep. Nessie is right to hide and slumber; such is the only way to escape these beasts!
They dare call me and mine monsters in the night, but they are the true monsters! They always have been, but nobody wants to hear an old Vampire's lament!
I know for whom you are all waiting, the jolly, old Elf, eldest of us all. Well, jolly Saint Nick, do you have any light to shine on these horrendous deeds? Do you have any fabled hopes to give these children of the day and night? Be careful what you say, old man, for it may well be your words that lead us to the next mass extinction!
I'm retiring for another century. Perhaps things will have calmed when I come around again.
Noapte Bună,
The True Count
Greetings, All!
Count and Nessie, I really wish you two would not retire at this time. Dracula, I may end up having to call on you for assistance one of these nights. Nessie, do you not realize that these are scary times even more so for the children than they are for us? Your young friend needs you now more than ever before!
Yes, we have more children turning to violence, and yes, there is violence and hatred everywhere. Yes, a good many humans are out for -- forgive my pun, dear Dracula -- blood and worse, especially from those who fear what they do not understand. Yet not all of them are bad. For every thousand wicked humans, there is at least a dozen good ones. We would have already restarted if this was not so. Many of you may wonder what I mean by restarting, but others of you already know. Tooth, Zelda, Dracula, you know exactly to what I am referring. Sherlock, you know as well if you would only allow that magnificent mind of yours to think, for even a moment, that magic is real, which indeed it is, old friend.
Cinderella, Your Majesty, though you claim to be from another land entirely, I believe you, too, know, and I hereby request that you pen personal letters of your own experiences to your fellow Princesses. Belle, Jasmine, Snow, and the rest all need to hear from you even more and be guided by your kindness and generosity now more than ever before. I know. I can practically hear some of you shaking your heads now, heaving heavy sighs, and moaning, "Generosity! Kindness! How can the old man speak of such in these troublesome times?!"
Because, my children, these are far from the most troublesome times this world, or even this old man, has ever seen. I have had to fight to get in to cheer children, and I, too, have been hurt by their disbelief and their usage of my likeness in all sorts of wretched things on which to make money and build their little fames and fortunes. But the fame and fortune we are seeking to leave behind in this world, my friends, is far greater than any amount of strife they can cause us.
Zelda, find a place where none overhear and talk to Salem. Ask him, though I suspect you are already aware of the answer. Did he ever regret the decisions he made in trying to free your people? He regretted being caught -- yes, of course. He regretted losing his magic and being transformed into a cat. But did he ever truly regret trying to fight? We have to fight for what is right and honorable, my friends, because no one else is going to do it, especially not in this wretched world!
We are so drained of magic, which was the first great element this world lost, but now we are losing the rest of the true wonders that remain. Hope is becoming scarce everywhere. So, too, are goodness and kindness and, most of all, love. No, I am not saying that you should not harbor grudges against those who have killed your people, against those who you see harming children, nor am I saying to stand idle for it. What little innocence that is left in this world, whether it be from human children, animals, or other species, including those who miraculously have yet to be discovered by the human being population, must be protected at all costs!
Come now, children. Have none of you honestly not figured it out yet? (Yes, Belle, I know that was not the proper way of phrasing that sentence, but hear me out!) Can you not see what is happening right in front of your very eyes? Things are escalating rapidly, and we are heading for another mass plight, perhaps even another mass extinction, but there is still goodness in this world! You and I, my friends, are a great deal of that goodness, and we must not sacrifice our hope! Ours are the few lights remaining in this world.
Yes, we have children turning against us. We have children killing children, and committing even more horrendous acts to other little kids. We have the worst of troubles everywhere we look, but we, my friends, are the lights! We are the few good paragons left of goodness, honesty, kindness, generosity... This is exactly why we are on the Council, and why such purported non-believers as Sherlock and blood drinkers as Dracula are in our Council! Because, my friends, they know! They know that being different does not make us evil. They know, even for the one non-believer in our midst who does not wish to admit otherwise, that magic exists. They know that good and evil exists in every little and big thing!
They know, too, that each of us is a force that is needed! Dracula, you speak as though you've been hiding away from the world, but what of that group of Goth kids who found you a fortnight ago and asked you to transform them? What did you say to them? You scared them away and told them they did not want to be like you. They did not want to have to seclude themselves away from all human things and from sunlight. They did not want to abandon their loved ones for a life consumed by darkness.
Cinderella and Belle, yes, you have both seen children do horrible things, as have you, Snow. Each of us was once a child ourselves, and you have all seen children also do wonderful things. As have you, Tooth. Nessie, you went so long without a friend. Would you really so freely give up your precious boy for anything in this world? Or you yours, Owl? Would you forsake Sabrina, Harvey, or even the new, little Witchling, Zelda? Of course none of you would!
There are children like these being born every day, and in each child, there is a light. If we can find these lights, cultivate these lights -- as Mary Poppins will tell you from firsthand experience, it is not too late! Each child is a new beginning. Each child is a new light, reason, and source of hope and goodness. It is for these children -- those being born, those who are yet to be born, and those precious few who have managed to hold on to their lights -- that we must not surrender hope. We must not stop believing, because that right there is why I myself have personally selected each of you into this Council to watch this wretched world: We are all believers, even you, Sherlock. Deep down in that genius mind of yours, you know that anything is possible, and so, too, you know even magic, no matter how greatly you may cry out the opposite, is possible.
Walk your streets. Read your newspapers, but don't just read what the world prints, what your governments would have you know. There are still children in this world who need us. There are still children who are going hungry themselves so that their brothers or sisters may eat. There are still children stepping into their own parents' blows to protect their other parent or their siblings, and even those who stand to bullies they realize they cannot possibly beat to protect others. I am going to start sending Elves out along with the birds (it's not as though we make nearly as many presents as we once did, what with all the children whose beliefs have been stolen along with their innocence), and I want you all to read the epistles my Elves bring you. Likewise, when you witness children and others doing good deeds, I want you to shout out that news as loudly as you can. You will soon see that this world is far from over.
Yes, everything that is happening in this world right now is terrifying, but it can only scare us as long as we allow it. A good friend of mine once said, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Doubt is of the enemy, and if we are to save the children, rather ours or others', we must not allow doubt to blind us. We must not allow fear to rule us. We must pray. We must hope, and we must celebrate even the tiniest victory.
And we can not, by no means, pretend we know what is happening to even the children who do sacrifice their beliefs, who do have their innocence and goodness stolen from them by this cruel world ran over by their parents and their parents and their parents and so forth. Belle, that child who so spooked you and the others in your kingdom, the little boy who killed his own parents? He wasn't boasting; he was crying inside! He was boasting loudly so that none may suspect that he was indeed so very, very frightened. He killed them, you see, in defending himself for they were both abusing him, but what you did not see, to what your own fear blinded you, is that that very child is terrified for he is all alone now.
Likewise, Queen Cinderella, the child with the gun? No child can so readily and freely obtain any weapon in any of the nations currently existing. (Although when they all can, that, I fear, may well be the time to surrender hope and prepare for a reboot.) He procured that weapon from his father, a male (not a man) who has never once given that poor boy a single good word or pat. His mother looks the other way and pays no attention to his father or to him. He is all alone, and he has always been that way. He is grieving for those very ones he shot; yet, it all started as a way for him to cry out for help. The parents have been alleviated of any responsibility while the child suffers.
This is what we must stop. The children are being hunted and tortured as easily and as vastly as any four-legged animal. We must find the innocence that remains and protect it. (It was not an accident, ladies, that Aurora was sheltered by her three Fairy Godmothers, and not all Princesses are kept locked in towers to keep them from having normal lives despite what some may think and many have even been told.) We are on the edge of an Age of Not Believing, and in failing to believe there is vast, vast danger. It's up to us to culture the belief again, up to us to find those who have not yet had their innocence stripped and do all within our power to make certain we do not fail those children and those yet to be born.
If we pull away now, we will do that very unthinkable thing. We will fail. We will fail not only our people but any and all innocence remaining in this world. If we stop to believe, we will become our own forbearers of death and utter destruction. The power is in our hands, and we must help as many others as we can to also believe. Kindness is like a seed. Plant one seed, and it will bloom. But right now and for far too long, all our seeds have been going thirsty and hungry, feeling the abuse of all the others who cut them down. We must lift them back up. We must help them back up and help them to maintain their innocence and achieve their dreams. We must help for if we do not, we doom ourselves and all those around us.
Look not with your eyes or with your mind. Look with your heart, and when in doubt, look only at the facts as Sherlock teaches people to do. Look at the facts. The boy whose parents abused him beyond compare has forever lost his freedom and his own, rightful opportunities at an adult life, at an education, and at love, because he waited to protect himself until he accidently went too far. The boy who pulled out his father's gun, something he never have should be able to reach, and brought danger and the enemy into a place that is supposed to be ruled by happiness, love, and dreams was never reached, never shown any kindness, and now most likely will never be shown any while his own abusers, the people who actually spurred him to take the violent methods he did, go free and can just as easily create another child as unloved and abused as their firstborn. The girl who cut off her own father's hands because he would not stop touching her in all the wrong places will never stop feeling those touches and may well never be capable of loving, and if discovered, she, too, will never be free to grow to an adult capable and able to make her own decisions. Even the people who were so hungry they could have eaten a living, talking, and walking pig with or without a bonfire could have been reached, and were failed, by others. They could have been given food by any of the vast majority of their own people whom they saw dining in their home village but instead were helped by none and ridiculed by all.
No great, dastardly action is ever committed without provocation first. We must deduce the reasons behind everything before we judge. In fact, it is not up to us to judge but the One who made us all. It is only His place -- or Hers or Theirs, for those of you who believe such things -- to judge. Ours is to lead by example, no matter how painful the reality. Ours is to love, and to forgive, and to love still while also protecting all those we love and all who are innocent to the upmost of our abilities. We must persevere. We must not lose our own hopes, because if our lights go out, so, too, does the entire world become extinguished and then the restart will begin in earnesty, something for which I dare say none of us are quite yet ready. It will vastly change everything for the worst, but it remains something that should not be done and does not have to be done as long as innocence still exists, which it does.
Look for the epistles starting tomorrow, and please, try to look on the bright side of things. Try to find those hidden moments of generosity and love. Try to keep planting those seeds for the next generations that are so sorely needed if we are to turn this mess around, which can, I assure you all, still be done with love, understanding, and patience. Try to listen and focus on the good news, not just to what our governments tell you all for they will always focus on whatever wickedness does exist in this world. Remember they want the enemy to win; we do not.
Love one another, and focus on that love, and eventually, love will win. Love will always eclipse hatred in the end. Focus on love, and the rest will follow.
Oh, and speaking of following, Snow, some of my boys will be coming to see yours tomorrow night. They seem to need to let loose a little. As I mentioned, we don't get to make nearly as many toys as once we did, but the numbers for this year are actually improving a little from last year.
Be Blessed, All,
K. Kringle
S. Claus
And well, you all know the rest. ;)
Author: Apache Firecat
Fandoms: Disney, Holidays, Dracula, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sherlock Holmes
Wordcount: 8,641
Rating: Strong PG-13/T - to a Light M/R
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Real!Disney, Real World Events, Hunting shown in a Bad Light, Mentions of Child Abuse and Pediophilia
Relationships: Charming/Cinderella, Beast/Belle, Aladdin/Jasmine, Harvey/Sabrina
Summary: A legendary Council discusses startling events escalating around the world.
My Friends,
I am haunted by everything that is happening in our kingdom currently. Not all of our visitors are very nice people as of late, to the point that my husband and some of the other Princes have began to take it upon themselves to discipline those who should not be walking freely within our gates, or anywhere for that matter. There are people beyond the Pirates giving children liquor, and worse, much worse.
Children are willingly following and even joining the very worst of the villains while scores of other children are being not only harm by those children and others but again, much worse, things about which I can not bear to think, let alone write especially as there is such power in words as we all know. We truly did once pride ourselves on being the Happiest Place on Earth, but how can we remain happy when our children are under constant threat? How can we provide joy when we cannot provide safety?
Things have been escalating quickly, and I hear that ours is far from the only kingdom being affected. Still I was ill prepared for today. We all were. Someone brought a gun into our magical place, a live gun that fired live bullets, and they attacked the very children to whom we have all dedicated our lives to making happy and teaching the better things of life. How can we expect them to hold to their morals growing up, when they cannot even be happy here, when they cannot be safe here or anywhere, including their own homes?
Safety and joy must go hand in hand, but even that dreadful, giant Mouse wanted to just cover everything up. I know we're supposed to view that Mouse as our savior, and I know he and Walt did make certain, great sacrifices to bring us all into this world, sacrifices that they have somehow set up and are still occurring to this day to bring more of our people over, but if things like this continue to happen, if the children who are brought into our land to be made happy cannot be kept safe, I am going to have to say something. They may well behead me or view me as they do poor Maleficent, but I know not how much longer I can keep my tongue.
Honestly, I shouldn't be keeping it still today. There were children today. Blood ran in our pretty streets. Children who were brought here to safety and happiness were led into a bloodbath. If the Fairies had not been so quick to activate, I fear what more may have happened, and what more may still happen. There were only a few lives lost today, but every life, especially that of a child's, is precious. When will this stop?
I hear tales from beyond the gates that things in the rest of the world are even more horrible, but they make certain I cannot attain these articles. I know the things they flash on these television sets are lies. Our own tales dominate them, but all of that happened in the past. We need to know what is coming. Even the villains seem to be afraid after today. Lady Tremaine actually rang me up today and, for once, did not speak a single cruel word. When such as they even tremble with anxiety as what may yet come, are we not living in far more dangerous times than ever before?
How do things fair in your corners of the world, my friends? Are we fighting a losing battle? Are our children opened to danger? Is there anything, truly, we can do to stop another bloodbath from happening, even in this magical place? Your honest thoughts during this time are not only requested; they are desperately sought. Please enlighten me to what is really happening beyond the palace. Please tell me we do have a reason to keep the faith, a reason to still believe. Please assure me that all is not lost.
Cordially Yours,
Queen C
Orlando, FL
My dearest Cinderella, and to Whomever Else By Whom This Correspondence May Find Its Way,
I sincerely wish I had good news, but I can stand a falsehood no more than you. It is getting increasingly more difficult to attain the true news here, as well. They clearly are hiding something from us, something they do not wish us to know. I fear that the events unfolding now may lead to a massacre even worse than that which our own people suffered, and I do not know how to stop it. I fear for my husband's safety every time he ventures beyond our castle, and no longer because he is covered in fur and so quick to wrath.
There have always been the hunters who murder poor animals in the name of "sport", those who want to add his head to their walls in decoration, but hunting is no longer stopping at our furry friends and lovers. You are most certainly, sorrowfully correct: Our children, our world, new as it is to us still, is under a vicious attack. We have not yet had a bloodbath within our sanctified walls, but neither I or Mrs. Potts are complacent with any one venturing out when such is not necessary.
Someone mistook my poor father just the other day for one of their people. Had it not been for Aladdin, he would have lost what little valuables he does have. (As you no doubt may recall, he still refuses to accept any gifts from my husband, myself, or any of our people, stubbornly viewing it as charity.) Jasmine is with child now, and she confesses to me daily that she fears for her children. She suspects things may have even been easier in the world from whence we have come, but of course, as we know, she and Aladdin are considerably younger than we. They do not recall all the horrors which we endured before coming to this new land.
I would not wish such travesties on anyone, but even I can understand why she is plagued by such thoughts. I always thought that the news Doc gave me on the evening when he advised that Adam and I will never be able to have children of our own would be the most horrendous news I would ever receive, but such is no longer the case. As you also know, the birds who can not speak our tongues are free to travel in and out of the parks, so I have instructed several to bring me newspapers. They do, from all across the world. I receive about fifty newspapers before the sun rises each day, and I am saddened to have to report to you that it is indeed a nightmare out there for our children and for anyone else's. Why, just today, I read of over a hundred kidnappings and so many molestations and murders that it would truly sicken you and anyone else with a heart!
Perhaps Jasmine is right, and this is not a world in which we would want to raise our children, but then what? Can we be expected to turn a blind eye to the children who are already here? Even Captain Hook has taken a hand -- or, rather, a hook -- in helping keep safe the children who do come into our kingdom, but we cannot keep them here forever. Now I know what you are going to say. You think he's only out to expand his own, little gang of ruffians, but let me be the first to tell you that the Lost Boys have nothing on some of the children who are venturing into our kingdom!
Yes, you read that right: the children! The adults are not the only ones who are acting monstrously! Why, it was only yesterday that the Captain snagged a boy and was about to hand him over to Stromboli for the brags he'd heard the child telling! Aladdin only barely stopped him, and when he heard the same tales from the boy's mouth, he nearly regretted it! That child, of only ten years of age, has killed his parents and was gloating in our kingdom that he had escaped doing that awful deed!
Such could never have been imagined in our worlds! Yes, the evil step mothers, hunters, Dark Fairies, and many others were horrible with whom to contend (not to mention the curses), but you never heard of a child killing someone! Yet some of these children are! And they think it is something over which to brag!
I fear I must close this letter now for I can barely see to finish penning. My stomach is roiling with sickness at the memories, and I can not seem to stop crying! This is not the world we came seeking, and Jasmine is right: With children now killing, it is certainly not a place anyone should want to, or have to, raise their children!
I, too, fear what is to come, but we must be brave. This is our world now, whether we choose to accept it or not. We have no further choice. And besides, what good could possibly come from returning to our own world? As scary as this vast world is, we must not forget what we have escaped, and to whence we would return if we did! They still seek to put my husband and my most cherished friends to death, and whereas your husband's head may never touch a trophy wall, you know they would not hesitate to put your friends to death! Do not forget, my friend, that a good many of your village did not come through with the move for that very reason!
Our peoples have always feared what they do not understand and sought to put that to death, but here, in this land, it seems that if anyone wants whatever it is you may possess, they are quick to dispatch with you to attain those very things!
Please, all of you, be safe!
With Love,
Belle
Anaheim, California
My Dearest Friends,
You both most certainly are correct in your fears and beliefs that the world around us is quickly twisting for the worst. Even my own stepmother could not have created a land this terrible! The good people are so afraid, and the wicked... Oh, my goodness, are you ever correct in fearing, Belle, that not a one of these ruffians will stop at anything to take what they want!
You all know the tale of how my marriage came to be and why I ripped it asunder, when I discovered the kind of monster my groom was! (No offense, Cinderella. I know our husbands are cousins, but yours could not be more different than that Prince Charming I left in your park the last day I was there!) Still, as horrendous as my Charming was, thinking I would dance for him forever until my feet bled and that the Dwarves were to be nothing but tools to add to his riches, so many of these people are so much more wretched!
They have lain waste to our forest recently, and the Dwarves and I have had to scurry even further underground. We rarely venture out these days, and whenever we must, we always hurry back, and often bring many of our animal brethren with us. Again, Belle, I know all too well what you mean when you describe how barbaric hunters have become. In our world, there were few hunters (beyond your village, my apologies) who would hunt for any reason other than royal orders and to fill bellies, but here killing other creatures -- killing the truly innocent -- has gone beyond not only that but that horrific idea of sport as well! They are now beheading innocent beings and living their entire bodies wherever they may fall! They will take the antlers of some deer, but when slaying others, even does and fawns, they leave everything behind! Worse still, we are discovering slain bodies of their own kind when we venture into parts of the woods where we do not normally journey.
We have found it necessary to keep to our own lest something far worse occur. Even when we do venture into the forest, or beyond, we try not to speak to anyone. We aim to refrain from even looking at any of their people, and still my friends, neither animals nor Dwarves, are left alone. The other day, we actually had someone follow us! I have not had that experience since I lived in your kingdoms, but it happened. They followed behind us and then tried to seal the mines with us trapped inside, thinking -- and I know this because they had the boldness to actually sing about it! -- they would take all the silver and gold when we were dead within! Luckily, they had not counted on little Dopey being so small. He escaped, then freed the rest of us, and my little men left me here quite determinedly while they dealt with the would-be thief.
I am no longer allowed to venture outdoors. I have not felt this frightened since the days in whence I hid from my stepmother, but you are right about the children, too. We had a child try to pick Grumpy's pocket that same day that we last ventured out. I would say the poor thing was hungry, but he was fat and round and even spoke with such language that he almost made Grumpy blush! Grumpy denies it of course, but I witnessed his face flaring red! Perhaps it was only due to my presence, but still, what are children doing speaking so crudely?
That boy was one of a group, and we saw the ones to whom he ran. They were putting some kind of white, floury substance up their noses, and that was exactly the moment the Dwarves all decided it was time for us to leave. Something different has befallen Dopey with those experiences. Even Happy does not seem the same. I am watching this as I pen this missive by candlelight, and only Grumpy sleeps fastly, a dagger nearly as large as he is clutched tightly in his little hands!
Oh, what are we to do?! Is it this way everywhere now? Please tell me it is not!
Frightened,
SW
Enchanted Forest
P.S.: I'll start sending some birds your way, Cindy!
To All My Fellow Council Members,
Oh, my friends, I do wish I could say that I am as startled as you all seem to be by these changes, but I might remind you rather that I was against the move from the start. Pooh Bear and the others would not listen, and I simply had to come along to protect them. It's what Christopher Robin would want after all, and what my great lineage of owls before me would expect as well. But I was against the move! I told you. I warned you all: The grass may seem greener in another pasture, but it rarely ever is!
And now look at us! This is a fine mess into which we have all landed! Yes, even far out here in our hundred acres, even we are feeling the sting of how ugly and barbaric this so-called civilization of ruffians has become! I have warned Pooh as I have warned you all not to go around these people, that they are far from being like our beloved Christopher Robin, but he refuses to listen to me when it comes to those accursed honey pots. It also seems that the very bees have been under attack by these people, and so we have found ourselves with what he feels to be a very serious plight - a distinct lack of honey with which to fill said honey pots.
Against my better advice, he gathered a group the other day and ventured into town to try to attain more honey and to determine what had happened to the bees. The bees are dying, my friends, and they are far from being the only species these people have made extinct -- that is to say, that they are far from the only species whose every single member has been wiped out by these people! Perhaps not every member. Perhaps that it is a little to the extreme, but not by much, I warn you! Furthermore, if they have their way, if someone does not stop them, they will be made extinct! They are destroying their own world and, along with it, all the creatures who call it home.
Which, sorrowfully, includes us! As I said, I warned you! An old bird can only do so much! Yet here we are again -- in yet another world that is slated to death!
And lest you think I jest, hunters actually came to our beloved One Hundred Acre Wood, following Pooh Bear, Piglet, and Tigger when they so foolishly ventured into town over honey, of all things! If it had not been for Rabbit's and my own quick thinking, that lot of beasts would have gone away from our forest with the heads of two of our most beloved, cherished members, but that is not even all! I clearly heard them discussing roasting poor Piglet over a fire and eating him here in the forest before taking Pooh's and Tigger's heads to mount on those accursed walls! They caught Piglet too before we could be rid of the monsters. He has not stopped trembling since, and I truly fear the poor thing will never be right again!
We've made our pot! Now we must lay in it, but I will not watch any more of my friends die without a fight!
Signed,
Owl
My Friends,
I fear I have seen this all before. It is the very thing that caused Salem to mount a rebellion that failed so miserably. I know you are all mostly new to this dimension, having come to our world in the Edwardian Era, but let a Witch with a few centuries beneath her coned hat tell you that this is certainly not the first time hatred, fear, and greed have ruled America. Before America was settled here, this land thrived with Supernatural beings: Witches, Vampires, beasts, Sorcerers, Fairies, and many, many others who had sought refuge here upon the dark-skinned tribes that originally founded this land.
Those very people are still here, or rather, what remains of them, but the Supernatural populations, as you all should know, have been dying for centuries. That is because the humans were so bent on conquest, on taking whatever, or whoever, they wanted for themselves. The humans are the true monsters, but they never looked at themselves in such a light and never will. The dark-skinned tribes that originally settled this land are still known in some areas as the Native Americans, but they have been all but wiped out by the people who came next.
There was a time when we had as many magical beings in our world as you did in yours. There was a time when magic was well known, and the knowledge, although not the art, was well accepted. People did not try to lie and pretend that such did not exist, but when trying their best to wipe us all out was not as effective as they wanted it to be, they began to find other means of destroying our circles. They killed thousands of peasants who were not Witches but simply did not fall in with their ways of thinking -- such as yourself, Belle, so open-minded and open-mouthed about everything that they do that is wrong and upon which they should indeed be called out --, but when confronted with a real Witch such as myself, they more often than not ran.
I would like to say more on this matter, but I know that no letter leaves this house without being witnessed by the Council. As risky as it is for me to say this much (and if I am indeed silenced, you will know when you do not receive word from me again), Salem had a reason to do what he did. Most of the humans ran from us publicly, but the outcry amongst their kind brought a new kind of hunter into our mix. Thousands of our kind were being slaughtered every day for being different. Somebody had to do something. He tried, he went a little power mad, and ultimately, he failed.
I fear any attempt now to quell this growing madness will also likely be met with such a wrath, but I also am getting a bit ahead of myself. Humans have always had the tendency to take whatever they want, by whatever force they deem necessary to attain said items. It is nothing new. Look at the Native Americans whom I already mentioned. Yes, they are still here, but there are so few of them now. Theirs is a distinct example of what human beings do even to their own kind: Forget the bees. They nearly made an entire race of people extinct! They took the kind and noble "savages" as they called them back then and slaughtered them by the hundreds, by the thousands even. They took their land from them, their homes, their food, and they did all this while by being welcomed with kindness in the beginning. They even poisoned them to their deaths with blankets tainted and given to them in the depths of Winter.
They stripped them of everything they owned. They took an entire country from them and sequestered them away onto tiny parcels of land. Many of the few who survived still live feeble existences on these places called reservations. Think of your parks only without the acceptance of the fact that you do not go beyond your parks. Moreover, think of a truly savage people who broke into your homeland and forced you into such small areas, who took the food you offered them when they were starving and made you starve, who slaughtered your children and raped your women...
As I said, humans are the true beasts. Teir selfishness knows no ends, but it is not just all humans. It is nothing as simple as that. No, rather, for lack of better terminology, there is your generic human, and then there are your special humans. Special humans like you, Belle, who can see beyond a beast to the Prince within because you feel no hatred for something or someone simply because he is different, or you, Snow White, with your seven, little men whom you care for as a mother, or even you, Queen Cinderella, with your talking, helping mice. Generic humans take whatever they want heedless of any morals anyone else may have, any morals that actual good humans and other living beings possess, and they use whatever brutish means necessary to attain that which they want.
I'd best stop here for my instincts tell me if I do not, we will be laid siege to this very evening, and with Harvey and Sabrina having a new, bouncing baby, I dare not venture toward such. We must protect our own, after all, above all else, but for those of you like Belle who enjoy reading -- no, all of you should look up and read whatever you can find on the Trail of Tears if you truly wish to understand these monstrous brutes. Hold tight to your loved ones, because this nightmare is just beginning.
Sincerest Regards And Well Wishes To You All,
Doctor Spellman
Westbridge, Massachusetts
My Dear Bi-Pedal Friends,
I am having my human friend translate and write this for me, and yes, it is possible to be friends with these creatures. You yourselves should all know this, what with the way you (rightfully) worry about the human children. However, the way the vast majority of humans act is indeed a plight for great concern and even greater alarm. Zelda is correct: They did indeed almost make one of their own races extinct, but more than that, there was evil even in those she claims to have been so good.
I am not saying, mind you, that they were not good, but what I am saying is that there is good and evil in everything. Humans just seem to have more evil in them than most other species, but perhaps it is not even evil. Perhaps it is carelessness, thoughtlessness, heartlessness, even mere selfishness. Perhaps they are not capable, with their tiny, nut-like minds, of seeing an actual person or animal but only of seeing what they mean to them, rather it is something they do not understand and thereby feel a reason to fear them or it is something they have that they want to have themselves but do not, such as their very skins from which they fashion their clothing choices or their still beating hearts and all the supposed medicines they derive from such organs.
I warn you all as I have tried to warn you from the beginning: Humans are not to be trusted. There are a few who can be, a very precious few like my friend here, but for the vast majority, they absolutely can not be trusted. They are making the bees extinct now. They almost made these Native Americans extinct. But they have laid waste to many, many, many species.
In my time, my kind of animals ruled the world. We were huge. We feared the Tyrannosaurus Rex, of course, and other meat eaters, but when we first began to come across human beings, we thought they were too small to commit any real harm. They were so tiny! I can remember to this day so many of them I encountered who could have been squashed by a single toe of mine. Yet they squashed my people. They squashed my tribe. They squashed even the King of Dinosaurs himself.
There are a few of us left, very well hidden if I do say so myself, but for the most part, they destroyed an entire world, my world. I think it is time I return to hibernation. Just please know that human beings are the greatest threat you have encountered. Please be careful, my friends. I would like to be able to see at least some of you when I wake again.
Farewell,
Nessie
Scotland
My Friends and Fellow Council Members,
I wish I could tell you there was no reason for alarm, but we must not kid ourselves. We have all known this time would come! After all, why else would we have already been penning these letters for centuries? Yes, some of our members are relatively new, but not all, not by any means!
Our oldest members have all been watching these humans for hundreds of years! Nessie and her kind were the first beings in this world, as far as our histories can tell us, but even they were nearly completely extinguished by humans and their greed, and that is indeed to what this all boils down. Humans are the greediest species alive!
Zelda mentioned the Native Americans, but what she did not mention is that part of the hatred and fear that is spreading like wildfire throughout our world right now is caused by a difference in skin color. Yet, back in the time when the Native Americans did hold the country most of you now call home under their domain and control, it was dark-skinned humans who often sold dark-skinned humans. The color of their flesh did not matter nearly as much as their wealth, and many of them made their fortunes off the backs of their very own people! This seems to have been nearly forgotten now as the fairer-skinned ones are being held to blame for the darker-skinned, but make no mistake: There are hundreds of fairer-skinned ones, too, seeking to place blame on the darker-skinned humans for the plight of their nations!
What they all refuse to do is to take into account their own actions and the results from those actions! Until humans can learn this, we can forget, I fear, having any semblance of peace or safety again not only in this land but in any. After all, even those of you who come from other worlds admit that your own worlds were already destroyed by the greed and hate of the humans in those realms. They will not learn from their mistakes, and until they do, yes, we are doomed to repeat histories time and again. We are doomed to our worlds being wiped out time and again!
And yes, this is even affecting the children! There are still many whose souls have not yet been tainted by greed, but they are so afraid! Windows and doors are locked to where I can not even reach the children who believe in me, and there are fewer and fewer of even the youngest who still believe! It's a good thing that disbelief only kills Fairies in Neverland, because otherwise I fear we all, too, would be very extinct!
Allow me to remind you, as well, that teeth tell stories. Every tooth I collect has a story and gives me a little insight to the child from whom it was lost. Now of course, baby teeth are meant to fall out and be replaced by adult molars, and it is also always been a common occurrence for children to lose teeth early, rather it be from accidents or more brutal incidents. However, I must say that those more brutal incidents are increasing more and more with not just each passing year but each passing month. Children are fighting more often, and far too many have become involved in what the humans call gangs. Far too many children also are being mistreated by their own parents: their childhood beliefs ripped away far too soon, being forced to go without food or schooling as their parents indulge their greedy natures, and most horrifically of all, being hurt, and worse, by their own parents. Never have I borne witness to so many thousands of children being abused by the very adults who chose to conceive them!
I want to cry even as I inscribe this letter, but I must away to more teeth while there is yet an opportunity to reach these precious souls. As I close this letter, I am reminded that we have yet to hear from two of your eldest Council members. Please let us give a pause in the flurry of our letters -- I know I am receiving about a hundred letters a day, and I know it's not from the children! -- and give them a chance to speak to us. I can only hope and pray to the Great Star that they have better answers for us, but I fear they do not.
Hopefully,
T. Fairy
Everywhere, although it's looking more and more like that Everywhere may very well turn into Nowhere before too long... What does a Fairy do when she doesn't collect teeth or hang around with Immortal teenagers any way?
Dear Tooth Fairy,
I would say that I believe they grant wishes. At least I know my Fairy Godmother remains my closest friend to this day, and without her, my whole world would have long since fallen into shambles.
Belle, I've been wondering if perhaps we could set up something between my Fairy Godmother and your father? They may be getting on in age, but I would like to see her happy as I am certain you would him.
Also, my sincerest apologies for clogging up everybody's birdhouses with this letter, but I lack a way of contacting our dear Tooth Fairy correctly. Also, despite what I've said in regards to my beloved Fairy Godmother, I do fear we may be too late for wishes at this point...
Concerned,
Queen C.
Orlando, FL
My Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I, too, fear what is building worldwide at this time. I have often seen the States as being a more ruthless and uncivilized nation, but I do fear that we may have gone beyond the point of repair this time as the hatred and fear they are exhibiting so cruelly there is touching everywhere in the world, especially with this latest virus which I hesitate to admit I have learned from Scotland Yard was a weapon unleashed by our very governments. It was originally intended to only affect one nation, but it quickly got out of hand.
I have often doubted the existence of magic, but even if it does exist, as you all claim it does, I fear it can not resolve this issue. This is a matter of greed and jealousy, two things started in the heart, and the affairs of the heart are truly the most mysterious and hardest to control. One should never allow one's heart to rule one's mind, or even one's body; such is always bound to lead to disaster.
It certainly does seem that the entire world is headed, spiraling, towards a great disaster. I have also learned recently that our beloved Queen has fallen into great ailment, and I fear that is the final step on assuring that we will not receive any assistance in resolving this matter in a pleasant fashion from our governments. I may not believe in magic, but I am certainly open to any ideas anyone may have to how the global catastrophe that is so quickly hurtling our way may yet be prevented.
Cordially Yours,
Sherlock Holmes
London, England
All,
I've had little bats arriving all evening, each seeming more tired and winded than the last. I fear I do not have the answers you seek. If I did, I would not have sequestered myself away long ago in the remains of this drafty, old castle. Humans are a wretched lot and are certainly to be feared. I regret to inform you of this, but they truly do seem worse than rats, an impossible feat to defeat them! Where one is drained, three more spring to life with more hatred, more greed, more cruelty!
Zelda, forgive me, my dear, for I know that many of yours was put to death by these wretched creatures, but look at what has become of my clan! I am mocked my millions now when once my rage was legendary throughout the lands! No one dared to laugh at Count Dracula! Yet now, all know my name, and not a single one still fears me! My face, or what they dare to suppose is my face, has been on everything from toys and hard, chocolate cereal to others attempting to wrest my name and succeeding in making their own legends off my fame!
Yet if I venture out, if I reveal myself, I know I will be the last of my clan to die. I will wake one day with a stake in my heart for they do not even possess the courage to give a chap a real fight! They would much rather kill you in your sleep. Nessie is right to hide and slumber; such is the only way to escape these beasts!
They dare call me and mine monsters in the night, but they are the true monsters! They always have been, but nobody wants to hear an old Vampire's lament!
I know for whom you are all waiting, the jolly, old Elf, eldest of us all. Well, jolly Saint Nick, do you have any light to shine on these horrendous deeds? Do you have any fabled hopes to give these children of the day and night? Be careful what you say, old man, for it may well be your words that lead us to the next mass extinction!
I'm retiring for another century. Perhaps things will have calmed when I come around again.
Noapte Bună,
The True Count
Greetings, All!
Count and Nessie, I really wish you two would not retire at this time. Dracula, I may end up having to call on you for assistance one of these nights. Nessie, do you not realize that these are scary times even more so for the children than they are for us? Your young friend needs you now more than ever before!
Yes, we have more children turning to violence, and yes, there is violence and hatred everywhere. Yes, a good many humans are out for -- forgive my pun, dear Dracula -- blood and worse, especially from those who fear what they do not understand. Yet not all of them are bad. For every thousand wicked humans, there is at least a dozen good ones. We would have already restarted if this was not so. Many of you may wonder what I mean by restarting, but others of you already know. Tooth, Zelda, Dracula, you know exactly to what I am referring. Sherlock, you know as well if you would only allow that magnificent mind of yours to think, for even a moment, that magic is real, which indeed it is, old friend.
Cinderella, Your Majesty, though you claim to be from another land entirely, I believe you, too, know, and I hereby request that you pen personal letters of your own experiences to your fellow Princesses. Belle, Jasmine, Snow, and the rest all need to hear from you even more and be guided by your kindness and generosity now more than ever before. I know. I can practically hear some of you shaking your heads now, heaving heavy sighs, and moaning, "Generosity! Kindness! How can the old man speak of such in these troublesome times?!"
Because, my children, these are far from the most troublesome times this world, or even this old man, has ever seen. I have had to fight to get in to cheer children, and I, too, have been hurt by their disbelief and their usage of my likeness in all sorts of wretched things on which to make money and build their little fames and fortunes. But the fame and fortune we are seeking to leave behind in this world, my friends, is far greater than any amount of strife they can cause us.
Zelda, find a place where none overhear and talk to Salem. Ask him, though I suspect you are already aware of the answer. Did he ever regret the decisions he made in trying to free your people? He regretted being caught -- yes, of course. He regretted losing his magic and being transformed into a cat. But did he ever truly regret trying to fight? We have to fight for what is right and honorable, my friends, because no one else is going to do it, especially not in this wretched world!
We are so drained of magic, which was the first great element this world lost, but now we are losing the rest of the true wonders that remain. Hope is becoming scarce everywhere. So, too, are goodness and kindness and, most of all, love. No, I am not saying that you should not harbor grudges against those who have killed your people, against those who you see harming children, nor am I saying to stand idle for it. What little innocence that is left in this world, whether it be from human children, animals, or other species, including those who miraculously have yet to be discovered by the human being population, must be protected at all costs!
Come now, children. Have none of you honestly not figured it out yet? (Yes, Belle, I know that was not the proper way of phrasing that sentence, but hear me out!) Can you not see what is happening right in front of your very eyes? Things are escalating rapidly, and we are heading for another mass plight, perhaps even another mass extinction, but there is still goodness in this world! You and I, my friends, are a great deal of that goodness, and we must not sacrifice our hope! Ours are the few lights remaining in this world.
Yes, we have children turning against us. We have children killing children, and committing even more horrendous acts to other little kids. We have the worst of troubles everywhere we look, but we, my friends, are the lights! We are the few good paragons left of goodness, honesty, kindness, generosity... This is exactly why we are on the Council, and why such purported non-believers as Sherlock and blood drinkers as Dracula are in our Council! Because, my friends, they know! They know that being different does not make us evil. They know, even for the one non-believer in our midst who does not wish to admit otherwise, that magic exists. They know that good and evil exists in every little and big thing!
They know, too, that each of us is a force that is needed! Dracula, you speak as though you've been hiding away from the world, but what of that group of Goth kids who found you a fortnight ago and asked you to transform them? What did you say to them? You scared them away and told them they did not want to be like you. They did not want to have to seclude themselves away from all human things and from sunlight. They did not want to abandon their loved ones for a life consumed by darkness.
Cinderella and Belle, yes, you have both seen children do horrible things, as have you, Snow. Each of us was once a child ourselves, and you have all seen children also do wonderful things. As have you, Tooth. Nessie, you went so long without a friend. Would you really so freely give up your precious boy for anything in this world? Or you yours, Owl? Would you forsake Sabrina, Harvey, or even the new, little Witchling, Zelda? Of course none of you would!
There are children like these being born every day, and in each child, there is a light. If we can find these lights, cultivate these lights -- as Mary Poppins will tell you from firsthand experience, it is not too late! Each child is a new beginning. Each child is a new light, reason, and source of hope and goodness. It is for these children -- those being born, those who are yet to be born, and those precious few who have managed to hold on to their lights -- that we must not surrender hope. We must not stop believing, because that right there is why I myself have personally selected each of you into this Council to watch this wretched world: We are all believers, even you, Sherlock. Deep down in that genius mind of yours, you know that anything is possible, and so, too, you know even magic, no matter how greatly you may cry out the opposite, is possible.
Walk your streets. Read your newspapers, but don't just read what the world prints, what your governments would have you know. There are still children in this world who need us. There are still children who are going hungry themselves so that their brothers or sisters may eat. There are still children stepping into their own parents' blows to protect their other parent or their siblings, and even those who stand to bullies they realize they cannot possibly beat to protect others. I am going to start sending Elves out along with the birds (it's not as though we make nearly as many presents as we once did, what with all the children whose beliefs have been stolen along with their innocence), and I want you all to read the epistles my Elves bring you. Likewise, when you witness children and others doing good deeds, I want you to shout out that news as loudly as you can. You will soon see that this world is far from over.
Yes, everything that is happening in this world right now is terrifying, but it can only scare us as long as we allow it. A good friend of mine once said, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Doubt is of the enemy, and if we are to save the children, rather ours or others', we must not allow doubt to blind us. We must not allow fear to rule us. We must pray. We must hope, and we must celebrate even the tiniest victory.
And we can not, by no means, pretend we know what is happening to even the children who do sacrifice their beliefs, who do have their innocence and goodness stolen from them by this cruel world ran over by their parents and their parents and their parents and so forth. Belle, that child who so spooked you and the others in your kingdom, the little boy who killed his own parents? He wasn't boasting; he was crying inside! He was boasting loudly so that none may suspect that he was indeed so very, very frightened. He killed them, you see, in defending himself for they were both abusing him, but what you did not see, to what your own fear blinded you, is that that very child is terrified for he is all alone now.
Likewise, Queen Cinderella, the child with the gun? No child can so readily and freely obtain any weapon in any of the nations currently existing. (Although when they all can, that, I fear, may well be the time to surrender hope and prepare for a reboot.) He procured that weapon from his father, a male (not a man) who has never once given that poor boy a single good word or pat. His mother looks the other way and pays no attention to his father or to him. He is all alone, and he has always been that way. He is grieving for those very ones he shot; yet, it all started as a way for him to cry out for help. The parents have been alleviated of any responsibility while the child suffers.
This is what we must stop. The children are being hunted and tortured as easily and as vastly as any four-legged animal. We must find the innocence that remains and protect it. (It was not an accident, ladies, that Aurora was sheltered by her three Fairy Godmothers, and not all Princesses are kept locked in towers to keep them from having normal lives despite what some may think and many have even been told.) We are on the edge of an Age of Not Believing, and in failing to believe there is vast, vast danger. It's up to us to culture the belief again, up to us to find those who have not yet had their innocence stripped and do all within our power to make certain we do not fail those children and those yet to be born.
If we pull away now, we will do that very unthinkable thing. We will fail. We will fail not only our people but any and all innocence remaining in this world. If we stop to believe, we will become our own forbearers of death and utter destruction. The power is in our hands, and we must help as many others as we can to also believe. Kindness is like a seed. Plant one seed, and it will bloom. But right now and for far too long, all our seeds have been going thirsty and hungry, feeling the abuse of all the others who cut them down. We must lift them back up. We must help them back up and help them to maintain their innocence and achieve their dreams. We must help for if we do not, we doom ourselves and all those around us.
Look not with your eyes or with your mind. Look with your heart, and when in doubt, look only at the facts as Sherlock teaches people to do. Look at the facts. The boy whose parents abused him beyond compare has forever lost his freedom and his own, rightful opportunities at an adult life, at an education, and at love, because he waited to protect himself until he accidently went too far. The boy who pulled out his father's gun, something he never have should be able to reach, and brought danger and the enemy into a place that is supposed to be ruled by happiness, love, and dreams was never reached, never shown any kindness, and now most likely will never be shown any while his own abusers, the people who actually spurred him to take the violent methods he did, go free and can just as easily create another child as unloved and abused as their firstborn. The girl who cut off her own father's hands because he would not stop touching her in all the wrong places will never stop feeling those touches and may well never be capable of loving, and if discovered, she, too, will never be free to grow to an adult capable and able to make her own decisions. Even the people who were so hungry they could have eaten a living, talking, and walking pig with or without a bonfire could have been reached, and were failed, by others. They could have been given food by any of the vast majority of their own people whom they saw dining in their home village but instead were helped by none and ridiculed by all.
No great, dastardly action is ever committed without provocation first. We must deduce the reasons behind everything before we judge. In fact, it is not up to us to judge but the One who made us all. It is only His place -- or Hers or Theirs, for those of you who believe such things -- to judge. Ours is to lead by example, no matter how painful the reality. Ours is to love, and to forgive, and to love still while also protecting all those we love and all who are innocent to the upmost of our abilities. We must persevere. We must not lose our own hopes, because if our lights go out, so, too, does the entire world become extinguished and then the restart will begin in earnesty, something for which I dare say none of us are quite yet ready. It will vastly change everything for the worst, but it remains something that should not be done and does not have to be done as long as innocence still exists, which it does.
Look for the epistles starting tomorrow, and please, try to look on the bright side of things. Try to find those hidden moments of generosity and love. Try to keep planting those seeds for the next generations that are so sorely needed if we are to turn this mess around, which can, I assure you all, still be done with love, understanding, and patience. Try to listen and focus on the good news, not just to what our governments tell you all for they will always focus on whatever wickedness does exist in this world. Remember they want the enemy to win; we do not.
Love one another, and focus on that love, and eventually, love will win. Love will always eclipse hatred in the end. Focus on love, and the rest will follow.
Oh, and speaking of following, Snow, some of my boys will be coming to see yours tomorrow night. They seem to need to let loose a little. As I mentioned, we don't get to make nearly as many toys as once we did, but the numbers for this year are actually improving a little from last year.
Be Blessed, All,
K. Kringle
S. Claus
And well, you all know the rest. ;)